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The Lindheimer Chapter’s February meeting featured Victoria Raven with Esperanza Vineyard and Esperanza Winery, speaking on native grapes. Located in Blanco, Texas, at 115 Main Street, the mother/daughter owners are highly adept in their craft, using a lifetime of honed skills.Our lecture covered the importance of native Texas grapes, which have been hybridized into rootstocks used in vineyards worldwide to prevent infestations such as (1) the Phylloxera infestation in European vineyards caused by almost microscopic, pale yellow, sap-sucking insects, or (2) Pierce’s Disease, caused by the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, which is spread by xylem-feeding leafhoppers known as sharpshooters. There are 13 native grape species and 100 named varieties of wild grapes in Texas, more than any other state!Voted Best Winery in Blanco County for 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026, Esperanza Winery has developed important skills in grafting rootstock to obtain palatable varietals. Also, knowing the soil type and elevation a particular type of grape prefers is crucial for the vine to thrive.Don’t take my word for it. Tastings are available at the Blanco, Texas location. You are encouraged to go see for yourself! Explore your options at https://www.esperanzawinery.com
Feb Chapter 2026 Meeting - Texas Native Grapevines by Victoria Raven of the Esperanza Winery
Kidneywood is also known as White or Butterfly Gaura since the flowers resemble small butterflies. This is one of the showiest members of the Gaura species. The 1“ white flowers open early in the morning, starting white and eventually turning pink. They appear from late Spring to Fall. If the plants are cut back in mid-summer, when flowering declines, it will produce a fresh batch of flowers in the fall. Butterflies and bees enjoy the nectar.The loose, open growing plants are 2’ – 4’ tall and can be 3’ wide. The leaves are dark green in the summer and turn red or gold in the fall. White Gaura occurs naturally in the prairies and pinelands of the eastern part of the state. It prefers full sun but will tolerate part shade. It has a deep taproot, is tolerant of drought and requires well drained soil. It is moderately deer resistant but may require some protection when first set out.Plants are commercially available, and some named cultivars with pink flowers have been developed. It is easy to grow from seed, and plants will self sow, possibly becoming invasive.Kidneywood is a NPSOT Lindheimer Chapter NICE! 2026 Spring Native Plant selection
Plant of the Month February 2026
Goldenball Leadtree is a small tree or large shrub, up to 15 feet tall, native to the western part of the Edwards Plateau, the Davis and Chisos mountains and New Mexico, where it is found in rocky, limestone areas and dry canyons. It gets many small (1/2” to 11/2”) golden-yellow globe shaped blooms, mainly in spring but also intermittently through summer and into fall, especially after a rain. Butterflies and bees enjoy the flowers. Typical of plants in the legume family, it has small pods of seeds following the flowers. The attractive light green foliage is open enough to allow sun loving plants to grow beneath the tree.In its native habitat, Goldenball Leadtree is usually found mixed with other small trees in scattered groups. It is heavily browsed by deer, leading to its scarcity. In the wild, it is often a multi-trunked tree, and some people consider this a preferred landscape form. However, it can also be trained to be a single-trunked tree. Its branches are thin and brittle so it benefits from an annual pruning in winter (January), to shape the tree and also to allow the remaining branches to become stronger.Give this tree a dry, rocky location in full sun or part shade. It must be protected from deer. Because of its weak branches, it should also be protected from strong winds. It can be found at some native plant nurseries. It is also easily started from seed.Goldenball Leadtree is a NPSOT Lindheimer Chapter NICE! 2026 Spring Native Plant selection.
POTM Jan 2026
A Balancing Act: Managing Aquatic Plant Communities as Habitat in the San Marcos River Speaker Emily Lorovic Emily Lorkovic is a Wildlife and Fisheries Biologist at the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment. Her work focuses on aquatic habitat restoration, endangered species management, and long-term stewardship of the San Marcos River. Her background lies in stream restoration, aquatic invasive species, and freshwater mussels. Presentation summary Rather than focusing on individual plant species, this talk will look at aquatic plant restoration in the San Marcos River through a habitat and decision-making lens. I will discuss how we plan and manage plant communities in a system with multiple endangered species that have distinct and sometimes competing habitat needs, and how funding, regulatory requirements, and long-term maintenance shape those decisions. The goal is to share how we think through tradeoffs, uncertainty, and balance when managing native plant communities in a highly diverse but constrained river system.
Jan26Chapter Meeting
Drought, water restrictions and intense winter storms, oh my! Are you ready to plant some new native trees in your landscape? Looking to replace dead or fallen trees with natives that are beautiful to experience and vital to the wildlife in your neighborhood? Please join us as we discuss a wide variety of native trees including canopy and understory trees. You will learn tree characteristics, preferred growing conditions and how your tree choice can leave a legacy to the people and wildlife around you. Trees of Hope class offers choices so you can feel empowered to make a positive change in your yard, to better our community.Bailey Hoops is a clinically trained herbalist, certified permaculture designer and certified with the Native Plant Society of Texas in Landscaping with Native Plants. Her greatest passions are butterflies, native medicinal plants, and leading plant walks. She has spent 10 years building a medicinal food forest at her home, with a large emphasis on native pollinator plants. You can currently find her working with the Oak hill VFW post # 4443, helping run the Paul Pena Community Garden.
Trees of Hope
Snow-on-the-Mountain is an annual herb native to a large portion of the United States and naturalized in many states to which it is not native. It is locally common in central Texas. Its natural habitat is dry slopes, disturbed prairies, and roadsides. It blooms in late summer through early fall and is an important nectar source for bees and butterflies. This plant is usually considered poisonous and thus is highly resistant to browsing by deer and other mammals. The plant is toxic if ingested and causes inflammation or blistering of the mouth, throat, and esophagus and contact with the plant can cause irritation of skin, eyes, and mucous membranes. Sensitivity differs among individuals and toxicity can vary according to season, plant part, and stage of growth. Doves eat seeds without ill effects. Snow-on-the-Mountain can be propagated from seeds sown in the spring or fall. A fast grower, this plant typically reaches 1 to 3 or more in height and 1 to 2 feet wide. Although it prefers moist soils and part shade, it is considered drought resistant and is adaptable to various soil types including limestone and loamy soils. Snow-on-the-Mountain may be confused with snow on the prairie Euphorbia bicolor. Snow-on-the-Mountain leaves are long, oval, nearly hairless, and come to a blunt point. The upper leaves usually have a distinct white margin. Snow-on-the-Prairie leaves are similar but more elongate. The flowers are long lasting and the plant is a great selection for a wildflower meadow or as an addition to perennial borders as it readily self-seeds. It also makes an excellent cut flower but gloves should be worn when handling the plant to avoid direct contact with the milky sap. There is much to like about snow in the mountain, although it is sometimes considered an invasive weed outside its native range. Snow-on-the-Mountain is a NPSOT Lindheimer Chapter NICE! 2025 Fall Native Plant selection.
Plant of the Month Oct25 Snow-on-the-Mountain
Lindheimer Muhly is also known as Big Muhly. It forms a 2’ – 5’ tall fountain shaped clump of grass that makes an elegant specimen in the landscape. During the spring and summer it is a mound of blue green grass blades. However, in late summer and fall the seed heads begin to appear, and it takes the form shown in the photo above. This is a wonderful native substitute for the Pampas Grass that one often sees planted in non-native landscapes.Lindheimer Muhly is endemic to the Edwards Plateau, and is usually found on limestone outcrops often near small streams. While it enjoys some moisture, it needs a well drained soil in full sun. Like most grasses, deer will usually leave this plant alone. It does not need to be cut back each year, and in fact will grow back slowly when it is cut. Old seed stalks can be broken off in the winter and dead leaves raked from the grass blades. Birds use the leaves for nesting material, and eat the mature seeds. Lindheimer Muhly plants are commercially available, easy to transplant or can be started from seed.Note: Lindheimer Muhly is a NPSOT NICE!TM selection for Fall 2025.
Plant of the Month Sep25
Presentation by Healey Giambalvo Bringing Schoolyards to Life with Native Plants Learn how teachers, students, parents, and community volunteers can incorporate native plants into their school gardens and yards. Haeley will share details about the Society’s Native Plants in Schools program and provide an overview of resources available including the School Garden Starter Guide, a downloadable Native Plants for Kids presentation, and free curriculum and activities resources for making learning about native plants fun. Haeley Giambalvo is the VP of Communications and chair of the Native Plants in Schools Committee for the Native Plant Society of Texas. She has helped implement native plant gardens at several schools around San Antonio and is passionate about helping schools throughout Texas grow more native plants! Haeley founded NativeBackyards.com in 2020 to encourage others to help the Earth from their own yards by growing native plants that support insects and wildlife and conserve water. In 2021, Haeley published the book Native Plant Gardening for Beginners, available on Amazon.
Aug25 Meeting Presentation
Eve's Necklace is named for its long black seedpods which are constricted at each seed, giving the appearance of a string of beads. These seedpods form in late summer and fall, sometimes lasting well into winter. They follow clusters of fragrant pink flowers which bloom in the spring. Eve's Necklace is related to Texas Mountain Laurel (Sophora secundiflora), and like Mountain Laurel its seeds contain a poisonous alkaloid. However, it differs from its cousin in that it is faster growing, deciduous and it will be browsed by deer. Eve's Necklace is native to the limestone soils of central Texas north into Oklahoma. It prefers dry, well drained soils and does well in sun or part shade. When crowded among other plants it will be a spindly shrub. However, given an open space it can develop into an attractive 15' - 30' ornamental tree with a rounded crown. Although not as well known as its relative, Texas Mountain Laurel, Eve's Necklace is worthy of consideration as a landscape plant, and can be found in native plant nurseries. Since flower color varies, it is best to select plants while they are in bloom. Transplanting from the wild is best done in the winter when it has dropped its leaves. It can also be grown from scarified seed to a six foot tree in three years. Eve's Necklace is a NPSOT Lindheimer Chapter NICE! 2025 Summer Native Plant selection
Plant of the Month Aug25
Gregg’s Mistflower, formerly known as Eupatorium greggii, is a 2’ tall perennial groundcover. It is usually covered with light blue flowers from spring through fall. This plant is a butterfly favorite and is especially attractive to Queen butterflies, shown in the picture. It is native to the Edwards Plateau, the Trans Pecos region of West Texas and west to southeastern Arizona. Here it is found in gravelly soils that get seasonally flooded. It can thrive in dry, well drained soils in part shade, but it does enjoy occasional watering. The more sun it gets the more water it will need. The plant goes dormant in winter and the old, woody shoots can be cut back before new growth re-emerges in the spring. It will spread to several feet via shallow underground roots, but doesn’t become invasive. It is browsed by deer. A similar plant, Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinium), is native to the moist woods of East Texas. These two species can easily be distinguished by the shapes of their leaves. Gregg’s Mistflower has divided, palmate leaves (it is sometimes called Palm-leaf Mistflower), while Blue Mistflower’s leaves are somewhat triangular and bluntly toothed. Gregg’s Mistflower is a NPSOT Lindheimer Chapter NICE! 2025 Summer Native Plant selection
Plant of the Month June2025
Presentation by Monica Maeckle Discussing her new book “Plants with a Purpose”Monika Maeckle is a gardener, monarch tagger, recovering beekeeper, and curious student of nature who loves the whole life cycle. She’s based in San Antonio.With a long career in media and marketing, Maeckle founded the Texas Butterfly Ranch website and San Antonio’s Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival. She and husband, Robert Rivard, founded San Antonio’s independent news site, the Rivard Report, which later rebranded as the nonprofit San Antonio Report. She continues to serve as a contributor to the site.Maeckle raises butterflies and native plants in her Mariposario and urban garden as well as at her family’s Llano River ranch. She, her family and friends have tagged 10,000+ monarch butterflies over the years, more than 60 of which have been recovered from the forest floor in Mexico.Maeckle worked closely with the National Wildlife Federation in 2015 to convince San Antonio to sign the Mayor’s Monarch Pledge, resulting in the city’ status as the nation’s first Monarch Butterfly Champion City. In 2016, with lots of community help, she organized San Antonio’s Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival, which occur each October during peak monarch migration season, attracting thousands of visitors. Social impact media site Nationswell profiled the event in a 12-minute documentary and named it “Outstanding Solution of 2018.”Maeckle also spearheaded a local pollinator habitat initiative, in an effort to create 300 pollinator habitats for San Antonio’s 300th birthday. After exceeding its 2018 goal, the initiative expanded beyond San Antonio, and now boasts 1,200+ registrants.Her first book, The Monarch Butterfly Migration Its Rise and Fall, was published in August of 2024 by the University of Oklahoma Press. Her second book, Plants with Purpose: Twenty-Five Ecosystem Multitaskers, was published in May of 2025 by Texas A & M University Press.
June Meeting 2025
Debbie Kyrouac began her interest in plant ecology and plant taxonomy during her graduate work at Texas Tech Univ. She and her family moved to San Antonio in 2009 where she took a job teaching Biology at Northeast Lakeview College and renewed her interest in local plants. More recently, she has expanded her interest in native plants of Texas through both NPSOT and the Texas Master Naturalists. Debbie is currently participating in numerous plant and butterfly survey projects at the Bracken Preserve, Guadalupe River State Park, the Heritage Museum garden and Madrone Trail pollinator garden. She also enjoys hours spent developing a native plant habitat on her own property.Reference List “Grass, Weed and Wildflower Guide” TxDOT.gov “The Natural History of the Edward’s Plateau”, Brian Chapman and Eric Boleyn, 2020, Texas A&M Press “Land Stewardship for Birds”, W, Rufus Stephens and Jan Wrede, 2016, Texas A&M Press
Lindheimer March Meeting 2025
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